Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president Omar Abdullah on October 10 conceded defeat in the Jammu and Kashmir elections and said his party will not stake claim to form a government even if it emerges as the single-largest party.

"Certainly", he said when asked whether the ruling NC lost the mandate of the people in the elections.

Hoping that his party would bag at least 25 to 27 seats and emerge as the single largest party, the Union Minister, who himself lost the Ganderbal seat, said the NC would not stake its claim to form the next government.

Predicting that the Congress-PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) coalition would not last long, he said already a quarrel had started between the two parties as to who would become the Chief Minister.

"I don't want to become a doomsday professor, but I have always been saying that the problems of the state would worsen with a 'Khichri' government", he said when asked how he visualised the future scenario.

Dismissing a suggestion that the NC had lost the elections because of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, he said the reasons for the drubbing needed to be gone into and it would be difficult to say at this moment that the people were unhappy with the NC and wanted to punish it.

PTI